He had launched the kind of withering attack on the local manufacturing giant no company wants to endure, an attack inside sources told this publication "certainly encouraged" the company to downsize its employment base in Boone County.

Why are We the People now being forced to pay for these policy blunders by having our town blighted and so much money taken from our schools?

Why didn't our leaders get off the backs of local employers from the get go?

And where was REDI -- that supposed guardian of job growth -- when Mr. Schauwecker went after these companies, chasing them as high up the court system as he could go -- on our dime, no less?

Instead, We the People are left to pick up the pieces.

"Now, with the last batch of 38 employees scheduled for layoff in June, company officials and Columbia's Regional Economic Development Inc. (REDI) are working to attract production of new 3M products to fill the unused space in the 380,000-square-foot building," the Columbia Business Times reported in 2008. "And the city has given the company a break on its electric rates."

Why are We the People now being forced to pay for these policy blunders by having our

town blighted and so much money taken from our schools?

In the annals of absurdity, it doesn't get any more absurd than the 3M debacle -- and the big tax abatement push for local manufacturers and other employers.

Heard by the county commission's Board of Equalization (BOE); then a state hearing officer; and finally, the full Missouri State Tax commission -- the shakedown of 3M tied up nearly $1.4 million property tax dollars -- mostly for local public schools -- in escrow for three years. "On April 12, 2007, Senior Hearing Officer Luann Johnson issued her decision and order SETTING ASIDE the value determined by the Boone County Board of Equalization (or BOE, mostly composed of Boone County Commissioners) and adopting the value proposed by the taxpayer, 3M" reads the first order. But Schauwecker fought on, taking his appeals to the full State Tax Commission, where he was again denied on October 11, 2007.